San Antonio, TX Tree Protection: Heritage & Protected Trees (2026)

Sec. 35-523(f)(1)(B) sets the heritage-tree threshold at 24 inches diameter at breast height for most species, but six understory and ornamental natives qualify at just 12 inches: Texas persimmon, Texas redbud, Texas mountain laurel, condalia, possum haw (in the floodplain only), and hawthorne. On a multi-trunk tree, the largest trunk counts at full DBH plus 50 percent of the diameter of the remaining trunks toward that threshold.

Table 523-1A requires 100 percent preservation of heritage trees within each platted lot for single-family development and within the entire site for multi-family and nonresidential development, whether the applicant uses the tree survey method or the tree stand delineation alternative in Table 523-1B. That preservation figure sits alongside a mitigation ceiling: Table 523-1A allows up to 80 percent of heritage trees to be mitigated rather than physically preserved, but the tree stand delineation table separately requires a minimum of 20 percent of pre-development heritage tree canopy to be preserved and not mitigated away.

Where a heritage tree must be removed, Table 523-2 sets the replacement ratio at 3:1, three new one-and-a-half-inch caliper trees for every heritage tree lost, except Ash, Hackberry, Huisache, Ashe Juniper and Mesquite, which mitigate at 1:1 even at heritage size. A separate historic-tree review applies when a tree tied to a designated historic property comes up for removal: the historic preservation officer, advised by the Historic and Design Review Commission, has 30 days to decide, and the application is deemed approved if no decision issues in that window.